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You're a member of Generation X-the 30-to-44 age cohort. And you've drawn the short stick when it comes to work. The economy has been stacked against you from the beginning. Worse, you're sandwiched between Boomers (with their constant back-patting blather and refusal to retire) and Gen Y's (with their relentless confidence and demands for attention). You're stuck in the middle-of your life and between two huge generations that dote on each other. But you can move forward in your career. In What's Next, Gen X? Tamara Erickson shows how. She explains the forces affecting attitudes and behaviors in each generation-Boomer, X, and Y-so you can start relating more productively with bosses, peers, and employees. Erickson then assesses Gen X's progress in life so far and analyzes the implications of organizational and technological changes for your professional future. She lays out a powerful framework for shaping a satisfying, meaningful career, revealing how to: -Identify work that matches what you care most about -Succeed in a corporate career or an entrepreneurial venture -Spot and seize newly emerging professional opportunities -Use your unique capabilities to become an effective leader Provocative and engaging, What's Next, Gen X? helps you break free from the middle and chart a fulfilling course for the years ahead.

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If you've ever felt sandwiched between the demands of Boomers and Gen Y's in the workplace, you're not alone. Fortunately, there is hope for Generation X, and for you. Jam-packed with practical tips, this chapter delves into what it means to be a Generation X'er and how you can use your generation's unique attributes to your advantage. You will learn how you can use an economic recession to your benefit, how you should adjust your goals and milestone timeline in accordance with increasing life expectancy, and even what your messy office says about you. By taking stock of where you and your fellow Gen X'ers are right now, you will be able to set the stage for moving ahead, planning for the future, and surpassing Boomers and Y's alike. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 2 of What's Next, Gen X?: Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want.

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For you, work probably involves an organization, whether you work within an organization or are an independent contractor who works regularly with other businesses. For the vast majority of Generation X, success, no matter how you define it, requires navigating the complexities of an enterprise and balancing your preferences with the often-conflicting priorities of other people. This chapter is about working more effectively with others, within an organization. It looks at how you can achieve success in your career, on your terms, and by your definition. You'll learn how to increase your productivity at work, leverage your contributions for success, expand your options, and balance the needs of the organization with your life outside of work. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 6 of What's Next, Gen X?: Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want.

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More than any other contemporary generation, Generation X'ers are attracted to work that offers alternative arrangements and a portfolio of options. Working independently, founding entrepreneurial ventures, joining small firms, and juggling multiple jobs simultaneously are hallmarks of Generation X. Many of you feel crowded in corporate careers, concerned about a Boomer ceiling that will forever cap your upside potential. If you are drawn to being independent, entrepreneurial, or part of a small company, this chapter is for you. It focuses on three new possibilities for Gen X - the alternative workplace of both small and independent companies, the entrepreneurial route and key lessons to minimize its risk, and portfolio lives that blend careers, spreading risk and laying the groundwork for future opportunities. Author Tamara Erickson will help you consider whether branching out-moving out of the large corporate environment or diversifying beyond one organization-is for you. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 7 of What's Next, Gen X?: Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want.

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Understanding why people from other generations behave the way they do will give you, as a member of Generation X, an advantage as you work with them - whether they be your bosses, colleagues, clients, partners, or customers. This chapter is about "them" - the other generations who share your workplace and your lives: the Traditionalists, Boomers, Generation Y, and the up-and-coming Re-Generation. In the workplace, confusion and frustration often erupt from simple generation gap miscommunications. This chapter will help you navigate these often rocky waters and explain what they are thinking. Author Tammy Erickson explores the formative years for each generation, explaining and translating the differences in the role each generation feels work should play in their lives, how they react to specific work-related experiences, and how they relate to each other. Understanding the priorities of these different generations will help you shape your own priorities and navigate toward success. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 3 of What's Next, Gen X?: Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want.

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The nature and availability of work is changing in important ways, ways that will significantly affect the opportunities open to Generation X over the next several decades. And most of the news is good. Despite near-term job shortages, the longer-term outlook for work is promising. The trend is toward tighter labor markets, providing you greater leverage to find the work you want. Better still, the nature of work, spurred by continuous changes in technology, promises opportunities that are more closely aligned with your values and with the types of lives that you and your fellow X'ers want to lead. This chapter provides a detailed look at changes in immigration, outsourcing, productivity, the nature of the organization, and what that means for Generation X - and what you need to do to take advantage. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 5 of What's Next, Gen X?: Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want.

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Remember Tylenol tampering, the rise of MTV, the start of the AIDs epidemic, and mothers re-entering the workforce in droves? They are all experiences shared by you and your fellow members of Generation X, and whether you like it or not, these experiences shaped the way you fit into the workplace. Many of our most powerful and lasting beliefs are formed when we are teenagers, when we first shift our focus from tangible objects and begin to wrestle with the values and ideas in the world around us. What we see and hear - and the conclusions we draw - influence for our lifetimes what we value, how we measure success, whom we trust, and the priorities we set for our lives, including the role work will play in it. For Generation X'ers, institutional let-down, over-education and under-employment set the stage for your participation in the workforce. Part nostalgic tribute and part ethnographic study, this chapter is about how Gen X'ers got to be the way they are and what it means for their careers. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 1 of What's Next, Gen X?: Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want.

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As a member of Generation X, you are probably finding it increasingly difficult to balance your family demands and ideals with growing workplace stressors. The tension you feel is a result of a distinct clash between your generation's universal themes and your personal preferences and many of the standard career paths available in business today. Perhaps you just need a little boost in your energy, or perhaps you are in full-fledged "middlescence," or mid-career malaise. This chapter outlines philosophical and practical changes you can enact now to work through middlescence and feelings of being stuck. To get engaged with work, you need to develop the right balance of flow and energy specific to your needs as a Gen X'er. This chapter includes an in-depth worksheet to evaluate what the distinct problem areas in your life are, and what work-life arrangements will best alleviate them, helping you get the most enjoyment out of your work and your life. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 4 of What's Next, Gen X?: Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want.

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We face a world with finite limits, no easy answers, and the sobering realization that we are encountering significant, intractable problems on multiple fronts. Why is this good news? Because your unique attributes as a member of Generation X give you a strong advantage in remaking organizations to reflect twenty-first century realities. The most difficult elements of your past may well be those that provide you with the strongest capabilities today. This chapter teaches you how to be a better leader by drawing on your own experience, whether you are leading through influence, managing people within a unit or group, taking on the challenge of transforming a traditional corporation, founding a business of your own, or working through organizations aimed at broader societal needs. This chapter also addresses the broad spectrum of challenges you might face and discusses the numerous constructive paths through them. The years between your early thirties and mid- to late forties are ones of great change, the highest velocity, in all likelihood, in your career. Are you prepared to make the most of them? This chapter was originally published as Chapter 8 of What's Next, Gen X?: Keeping Up, Moving Ahead, and Getting the Career You Want.

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Although Gen Y's are the best-educated generation yet, there are two skills that are essential to success that you may not have mastered. You must be able to communicate well in writing, using a style that is suitable to business. And you need to understand and comfortably speak the language of finance. Use the tips in this chapter to sharpen those skills and ease your transition into the work world.

This chapter is excerpted from "Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work."

learning objective:

To teach Gen Y's how to develop skills that are necessary in the work world.

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